A holy war has been waged over this crude, controversial Kevin
Smith satire of Catholicism. Financed and developed by Bob and Harvey
Weinstein at Miramax, a Disney subsidiary, it was sold to Lion's Gate
after William Donohue's Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
filed protests with Disney CEO Michael Eisner. The Catholic League
previously led a boycott of Disney over Priest, a 1995 Miramax release
which depicted a gay priest. Yet, despite all the fuss, Dogma is a
surprisingly dull parable. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play fallen
angels who have been sent to everlasting exile in Wisconsin. Using a
loophole in Catholic doctrine, they know a way to get back into heaven
but their re-entry would negate all existence - at least that's what
abortion clinic worker Linda Fiorentino is told as her help is
enlisted by an angel (Alan Rickman). She's befriended by the black
13th Apostle (Chris Rock) and a spunky stripper-muse (Salma Hayek),
while being pursued by an exiled muse (Jason Lee). She encounters a
zealous Cardinal (George Carlin), who's promoting "a buddy Christ",
and discovers God is a woman (Alanis Morissette). So what? Among the
long, boring interludes is some particularly repugnant chicanery with
an excrement monster. Affleck and Damon are genial dudes but
Fiorentino mopes, smirks or snarls, showing no emotional or vocal
range. Kevin Smith's cult fans who enjoyed Clerks and Chasing Amy may
be the only audience for this feeble comic fantasy which is too heavy
on moralizing and too light on laughter. Smith's message - that
dogmatism is bad, that no one religion is better than any other - is
delivered with a thud. The sophomoric jokes basically bomb. On the
Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Dogma is an uninspired, trifling,
muddled 2. It's a dud.